28 year of the Reading Half Marathon

The Reading Hlf Marathon has been going since 1983 when 5,000 runners took part in the event

Share

It is 28 years since the idea of a mass running event taking place in Reading.

At a time when there had been just two London Marathons it was decided Reading should create a race over the half distance of 13.1 miles.

The first race was run on March 13, 1983, and 5,000 runners took part.

The winner was an unknown student from The University of Reading, the venue for the start and finish of the race, 21-year-old Mark Cursons.

Wheelchair competitors were invited to take part, one of the first races to include them, and as a result the London Marathon introduced them for the first time later in that year.

In the early days of the race new records were set every year in the men’s, women’s and wheelchair race.

The venue has changed several times. After the university at Whiteknights it moved to South Reading Leisure Centre in 1986 and then to Rivermead Complex in 1991 before finding the most recent and prestigious venue of Madejski Stadium in 2004.

Over the years many well-known people have taken part, including the former England football manager Graham Taylor, the Cheeky Girls, jockey Richard Dunwoody and chef Gordon Ramsay.

Top athletes have attended the race as starters and guests including Sally Gunnell, Dame Kelly Holmes and Steve Cram.

Many overseas runners have taken part including the Klimes twins from the Czech Republic in 1987.

They came second and third in a very fast and close race behind Kevin Forster, who set the fastest time to date of 62.07, with London Marathon winner Hugh Jones fourth. Birchfield Harriers won the Sweatshop Team Trophy.

The following year, 1988, the Italian Athletics Federation sent runners to the race and from now on foreign competitors became a feature of the event with runners and a wheelchair athlete from Reading, Pennsylvania, taking part the following year.

In 1990 there was the unique finish of a dead heat and the four leading runners finishing within two seconds of each other.

The first overseas winner came in 1992 when a 16-year-old from Kenya, Scholasica Ndigingi, won the women’s race on the shortened course because of an incident in the town centre.

In 1993 Paul Evans won in then new record time of 61.38 to receive a new car and £1,000 as his reward.

Tanni Grey won the ladies wheelchair race and her future husband, Ian Thompson, set new figures of 59.23 for the wheelchair race.

In 2003 the current organiser, Sweatshop, took over the race which was run for the last time from Rivermead.

In 2004 the race started again from South Reading Leisure Centre with the finish in Madejski Stadium, with the largest entry to date of 10,500.

It was also significant as Julius Kimtai of Kenya won with 61.38, equalling the record time set in 1994.

The women’s winner was a Russian, Galina Ignatieva, in 74.27.

It was also the year when the Green Park Challenge was introduced to encourage new runners and youngsters.

The following year, 2005, the numbers rose again with an entry of 12,500.

The start of the event was delayed on the cool dry day and it was a two-man race with the winner of the previous year, Kimtai, being challenged all the way by 21-year-old Malack Olemengera until over an hour of running when he broke away to get his back to back wins in 61.51.

It was a double Kenya win as Catherine Mutwa took the women’s race with 73.09. David Weir won the wheelchair race – breaking the nine-year-record – with 51.40. It was a record he reduced to the present record of 45.59 in 2006.

In 2007 the team race was won for the first time by an overseas club, Ciclote Aranda from Spain.

The fastest race to date and the largest field to date was run in 2008, when Kenyan Patrick Makau lowered the record to 61.19 and Liz Yelling took the women’s record down to 69.35.

Kenyan runners took the honours in 2009 with Kiplimo Kimutai winning the race in a time of 62.46 with Joyce Kirui coming home first in the ladies race in 72.45.

Over the history of the race, hundreds of charities have received a total approaching £2 million.

The race has continued to grow in size and is now the largest half marathon after the Great North Run.